勤めます（つとめます、tsutomemasu）
- to work

The Japanese verb 勤めます つとめます primarily means "to work" or "to be employed" at a company or organization. It implies regular employment and a commitment to performing duties. It can also mean "to serve" in a role or position, or "to attend to" a task or duty. The core concept is performing tasks or working for an organization.

⚫︎株式会社で勤めます Translation: I work at a company. ⚫︎銀行に勤めています Translation: I am employed at a bank. ⚫︎彼は学校で教師として勤めています Translation: He works as a teacher at a school.

⚫︎勤めます is used when describing one's place of employment or the role one holds within an organization. ⚫︎It's common to use it when answering questions like "Where do you work?" or "What do you do?". ⚫︎It typically implies a full-time or regular employment status, and focuses on the activity of working. ⚫︎The verb often follows the particle に or で to indicate the place of employment. ⚫︎For a more polite or formal register, it can be used with the auxiliary verb ます to create the polite form: 勤めます。 The past tense is 勤めました and the continuous form (present progressive) is 勤めています.

⚫︎The word is typically written in kanji as 勤めます, with the reading つとめます in hiragana. ⚫︎The okurigana (hiragana following the kanji) is めます. ⚫︎There is only one main way to write this verb.

⚫︎働きます (はたらきます) - to work (general). ⚫︎就職します (しゅうしょくします) - to get a job (more formal, often related to finding a job). ⚫︎勤務します (きんむします) - to work (formal, often used in official documents).

⚫︎There isn't a direct antonym for 勤めます in the same way as "work" has "not work." ⚫︎However, words that express the absence of employment or working could be considered indirect antonyms, such as: ⚫︎退職します (たいしょくします) - to retire, to resign. ⚫︎失業します (しつぎょうします) - to become unemployed.

私は東京の会社で勤めています。 ・Translation: I work at a company in Tokyo. ・Explanation: This sentence describes where the speaker is currently employed. The use of で indicates the location of employment, and 勤めています conveys the continuous act of working there.

来年から新しい会社に勤める予定です。 ・Translation: I plan to start working at a new company from next year. ・Explanation: This sentence explains the speaker's future employment plans. The plain form 勤める is used in combination with 予定です to express a plan or intention.

⚫︎The kanji 勤 means "to work diligently," "to serve," or "to be devoted to." ⚫︎The verb 勤めます is formed from this kanji plus the verb suffix ます. ⚫︎The meaning is derived from the idea of applying oneself to a task or duty diligently, originally signifying devotion and application to a specific task or service.